Author Archives: Kapsar

DOGE is a disaster

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As we’re now a month into the Trump administration, we’re seeing the fruition of Project 2025 dreams. Elon Musk is taking both a figurative and literal chainsaw to the federal government.

This half trillionaire man-child has come into the government and acted as if Trump and Musk have a mandate to make dramatic changes to the US Government. That, instead of winning with a small majority, they assume they won by a landslide. They didn’t. Most Americans do not want what Elon is selling to us.

The Fork in the Road email was likely illegal, for a number of reason. As outlined by Legal Eagle in the video below.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/PT848djz4jA?si=fjj-uv3pU-vxjBRK

The firings are likely to cause mini recessions across the US as large number of people are suddenly unemployed. All in the name of reducing the size of the federal government. However, the job cuts have been done in such a sloppy way that many agencies are trying to rehire people they’ve fired.

This will make us less safe. We are firing flight controllers, which will negatively impact small and regional airports the most, but will lead to issues at our main hubs too. The goal, of course is privatization. That’s been a clear goal of republicans for decades. Privatizing an organization like the FAA is not a good idea. A consistent overarching regulatory regime is good for our airlines. It’s also unclear how Musk/Trump would privatize the FAA. Would they fracture it by state, would they just make it a single company.

How would states respond? Would some of them decide they need to have some sort of statewide institution to address the gap left by the FAA? Would we see significant deviations between the west coast and the south?

Piecemeal regulation like this causes issues with car manufacturers. As they are basically being driven by the most stringent regulations, mostly California. Would Boeing and Airbus find themselves under a similar sort of policy regime? Would Trump then try to kill the state’s ability to do this? Which they’ve tried to roll back California’s regulatory regime around emissions.

Many of these changes are illegal too. As Legal Eagle explains above. We need to take the legality of these issues seriously. We are a country of rule of law, even if the history of that application has been rather uneven.

We are the most powerful nation in the world and we have always had countries looking to the US to emulate our behavior. DOGE is certainly going to be emulated in other countries with dictators. We will see then, that the US media will broadly report how despotic those leaders are. We need to apply that mirror to ourselves.

DOGE is part of a dictatorship. Trump is in the middle of a bureaucratic coup. We need to fight it however we can. Call your Senators, Representatives, both Federal and State. Donate to organizations dedicated to fighting this. If you can, protest.

You aren’t impotent right now. You can fight back.

Book Review: The Myth of American Idealism

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I just wrapped up the Myth of American Idealism: How US Foreign Policy Endangers the World, by Noam Chomsky and Nathan Robinson. It’s been a while since I read a book by Chomsky. I heard about this one through an interview with Sam Seder of the Majority Report and Nathan Robinson a few days ago (mid Feb 2025). This book is apparently hot off the presses. Despite that they weren’t able to adequately discuss the Israeli invasion of Gaza, only the history leading up to it. It seems they finished that section just days before the October 7th attack.

As always Chomsky offers an interesting counter view to the mainstream press and often the view American historians. I think these views are important, as they can provide clear eyed discussions on what the US is doing at home and abroad. I think as Americans we need that. We need someone to pick us up and put us in the position of the outsider. We need to look at what our country does with the same critical lens our Press analyzes our national enemies.

Much of this book was relatively new to me. Or rather, I was aware of the events happening or that they had happened, but not to the extend described. Chomsky and Robinson constrain their review of US history to, mostly, the past 50 years, so shortly after Vietnam. However, to understand the US post Vietnam, you need to understand the Vietnam war and to understand that you need to go back at least to World War II.

As I said in my short the other day, History didn’t start on October 7th. Decisions made by one President influence and constrain the available options for the next President. Regardless of party, there is more often a likelihood of the next President will continue existing US policies. There are a variety of reasons for this, which is outlined in the book, including that even if the specific action was illegal, it’s already been done, so it’s unlikely to lead to repercussions. If the action is stopped, it may lead to a constraint on Presidential power and that would be unacceptable for the US President.

One thing that I had always wondered, since I was a teenager, is why the US sphere of direct influence, the countries in the western hemisphere are in such horrible states. This book answers it. It is US policy for these countries to be in the states they are. We have overthrown or supported the overthrow of a majority of South American countries. We have supported militaries and far right groups that support US business interests. We do not support New Deal based politics in the global south. Because that may mean providing more for the people of that country and less to the United States.

Chomsky and Robinson highlight cases in Nicaragua, Chile, Guatemala, Brazil, Ecuador, Panama, El Salvador, Honduras, and more. They describe in specific details what intervention we did. What sort of regime we supported, which includes Pinochet, which made me nauseous to read. Hell, we supported the Khmer Rouge until it wasn’t politically convenient any longer. The Khmer Rouge. Just despicable.

We, Americans, mostly White Americans, need to look at these choices head on. We need to understand what our country is doing in our name. We need to say, “No. I do not want to bomb those countries. No I do not support demanding 50% of mineral rights from Ukraine.”

Many US leaders do not want us to feel shame in our history. They do not want us to feel shame, because that shame will lead to anger and anger will lead to action. I do not feel shame over what the US has done. I feel angry. I never supported these actions. I never wanted the state to do these things. I protested against them. We should be angry. The US is a destabilizing force in the world. We need to reckon with that and make a decision on what we should do about that. We should be angry. Be Angry. Do something.

Note: Some links will be affiliate likes to Bookshop.org

Trump will not give up power

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The Trump administration has only been in power for four days so far and it is clear he will not give up power after his term is over. Why do I think this?

First, he floated the idea of running for a third term during his campaign. He floated it more recently before his inauguration. Now, a member of the House of Representatives, Rep Ogles, has actually filed an amendment to the Constitution to amend the 22nd amendment to change the term limits from two terms to three terms. The US has had a norm for Presidents serving more than two terms since Washington. FDR broke this norm and was elected to four terms. After his death the Constitution was amended to ensure no other President held the office more than two terms. This amendment should not be changed. It should not be changed for Trump.

Regardless, the door is open for Trump to disregard the 22nd Amendment. With the Republicans onboard for Trump to run again and to stay in office another term, because of his “bold” “Leadership”, Trump will use this as pretext to stay in office.

I cannot stress enough, this would be simply inexcusable for a Democrat to do. They would be castigate about this unendingly in the press. However, this is treated as a serious proposition rather than an unadulterated power grab.

Trump has already start the process to disregard other Constitutional Amendments. He is attacking the Birthright Citizenship, which is the 14th Amendment. We implemented the 14th amendment because of Slavery. After the Civil War, we implemented this so all the previously enslaved people were considered full citizens, as they should have been. Trump is attacking this amendment in an effort to go after immigrants, but this will continue with other US citizens. He will have the power to decide who is and who is not a citizen. Trump will claim his political enemies are not citizens.

Trump has effectively ignored portions of the 14th Amendment already, which prevents traitors from holding office. He has already pardoned the 1,500 traitors who stormed the Capitol. These 1,500 traitors were loyal to Trump while they were in prison. These people are still loyal to Trump. These people will continue supporting Trump. They will support Trump in staying in office. We should expect another insurrection in four years, if Trump isn’t allowed to stay in office.

This is NOT a reason for allowing Trump to stay in office by abandoning the 22nd Amendment. This is not a reason to fold up shop and just let Trump stay in power. These are all warning signs that we should listen to, so we can plan to prevent Trump from staying in power. We need to assume there will not be a peaceful transition of power at the end of this Presidency. We should assume there will be an armed mob attacking our voting apparatus. We should assume there will be voting intimidation. We should assume, there will be more stop the steal attacks.

Trump has an openly declared Nazi in his administration. Elon Musk, literally gave a Sieg Heil salute, at least twice, during his speech at the inauguration. He is a Nazi. Trump must be assumed to like Musk’s political stances. Trump is a racist old man with a racist Nazi sympathizer Co-President. He will try to stay in power. Musk may try to assume power if Trump dies in office. Musk cannot be President, because he’s an immigrant, but if Trump has shredded the Constitution to the point that we’ve destroyed the 14th and 22nd Amendment.

Babel as a Luddite Fantasy Book

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I read Babel by R.F. Kuang about two months ago. It’s an interesting book, one which I’d argue is a Luddite book at it’s core. Now the author explicitly calls it a Revolutionary book, in the subtitle, but as I wrote in my post about AI and Ludditism the Luddites were revolutionary and they were in a civil war.

Just so you know, there are spoilers in this discussion. Somewhat obviously.

The book is something of an alternative of our own Earth, based at Oxford University. Which, R.F. Kuang did study at. So she actually does have significant experience at the university and in the surrounding city. In her first series, The Poppy Wars, she has shown her excellent historical research skills. She dug into the Rape of Nanking or Nanjing Massacre as it is called today.

In this version of Oxford there is a specific type of magic, which is an offshoot of the language arts. The source of magic is the tension and distance between the definition of a word in one language and the “same” word in another language. An example would be the difference between Gezelig or Hegge, Dutch/Danish, and Cozy in English. Cozy is the closest word we have in English to these similar words in other language. These other words includes the love of family in a comfortable warm environment often during winter.

The distance between the two words drives some sort of associated magical power. Perhaps it would create a warm comfortable space where people were happy and more likely to fall in love. In other cases, such as the difference in English run and Chinese characters representing a running human, could power a train.

There’s another material required to enable this, a specific type of Silver. This Silver was mined all over the world, but like historical artifacts, much of it found itself in Britain. Similarly to how raw materials have moved from the edge of empire to the core of empire. Both during the height of the British empire and during our own time of the US domination.

The creation of the magic is created by the translation group in Oxford students and researchers in “Babel” which of course is based off the Biblical name. The students were nearly all international students with significant competence in English and one or more languages. Generally the more distant the language is from English, the more significant the power of the magic.

The blocks of silver basically replace steam power in this world. There are power plants, cars powered by the silver, and machines powered by silver. This is the industrial revolution in this world. Instead of steam, it’s silver. Either way, it requires significant extraction from physical locations around the world to power the technology.

The silver and the power of the words gradually reduces, which continually requires more silver and the domination of new languages. Peoples and Languages are related. To exploit the language means you are exploiting the people. Those languages are made subservient to English.

Where this becomes a Luddite and revolutionary work, is that the foreigners that perform the work, revolt. They decide to share the power of the silver. First skimming material and stealing large amounts of silver to support liberation efforts elsewhere in the world.

The academics form a coalition with the workers that are being pushed to the edge because of silver power. This is the same struggle Luddites found themselves in. They fought against the use of steam power that dehumanize the people using the tools. Silver does the same. Silver enables child labor. Silver, like steam, crops up empire.

In fact, the response of the crown is strikingly similar to what Merchant describes in the Blood in the Machine. The crown decided to respond with force, sending significant number of troops. Using military might to force the academics back to work.

The workers they actually teach the academics how to protect themselves. They create barricades. They bring weapons. They drive strategy for fighting the military. This is truly a revolution.

However, like the Luddite revolution, the academic revolution in this book fails. The Crown does win.

I truly think this book does a great job explaining alignment between white collar workers and blue collar workers. It’s obvious that today, which has a lot of analogues to the 1870s in the UK, that engineers, developers, tech workers generally, should create coalition with union organizers for service workers and blue collar workers. We have more similarly with each other than we do with the owners of capital.

I think this is even more true with the backlash we’re seeing today in tech leadership. Zuckerberg just rolled back a lot of benefits/support for LGBTQ employees and users of his products. He’s claimed that companies have been neutered and need more masculine energy.

I think this ant-employee behavior. It is anti-user behavior. Claiming that a company needs more aggression is not a healthy way to manage a team. Yes, you want competition between companies themselves, but you do not want competition between employees. It breeds distrust and anxiety in the company.

The problem is that based on donations to Trump and general alignment between people like Musk, Bezo, and Zuckerberg the technology leaders aren’t interested in competing with each other. Instead they are dividing up the digital space and punch down by attacking their employees.

Babel, Blood in the Machine, and similar books highlight the solidarity we need with fellow workers. Tech white collar workers need to drop the solidarity with tech leadership. They do not care about engineers. They will drop you as soon as they can. They play on your emotions to stay working for them, because you’ll be hurting your coworkers.

Anything that negatively impacts your coworker long term is their choice. Leadership dictating the number of promotions and how to promote is a choice. Their hands are only tied by their own greed. If you have to wait another year for a promotion, fire your boss. You earned that promotion. With the sheer volume of layoffs, it should be clear to all tech workers that you only matter as long as they can exploit you for their gain.

You can figure out how to exploit your employers.

AI and Ludditism

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A few weeks ago I finished reading Blood in the Machine by Brian Merchant which is about the Luddite civil war. I call it a civil war, despite the fact that generally, historically, this has been categorized as a small group of radicals that didn’t understand the value of progress. However, as Merchant’s book explains this isn’t the case at all.

Before getting into all of that, let’s discuss what a Luddite actually is. Most of us learned incorrectly in British History (or as part of a European history or international history), that Luddites were anti-technology. However, this isn’t the case. It was actually literal class warfare. This was a case of the working or middle class rising up against the capital class.

I’m sure most of you have heard of the term “Cottage Industries,” right? The term was coined to describe how businesses existed before the Industrial Revolution. Families, generally multigenerational, were craftsman of a specific trade. An example of this would be family that creates yarn from wool. They sell this to families that convert that yarn into clothing. A family would typically use a relatively manual piece of hardware to make the product they would make. They used machinery, because they wanted to improve their productivity. They understood how to repair and maintain their equipment. To be successful, you needed to be a skilled laborer. It was hard to do this work. It required years to master the tools.

When the Industrial Revolution kicked off, new machinery was developed. With the invention of steam power to drive multiple machines at once, equipment could be tied together and powered by a central power plant. This required significant investment of capital. To capture a return on this investment, capitalists drove down other costs, such as quality of material and salaries for employees.

The Luddites revolted against this change. They broke the steam engines and machines that produced lower quality clothing (for example) and drove down salaries for employees. They did not destroy all machines arbitrarily. Luddites wanted to maintain their quality of life. They weren’t making irrational decisions or irrational demands. The demand to keep the same living wage and living conditions is a very human one. Very reasonable.

People starved because of the change to these industrial plants. Children were forced to work in the plants, they were the cheapest source of labor. If a child could do the work, why would you want to hire a man that could think and reason that he should have more. A child from an orphanage wouldn’t know any different and would work themselves to death. Which happened, often.

We’re now in a similar sort of situation with AI. Is just a statistical tool that analyzes large sets of data and predicts things. This is, intentionally, a stripped down version of what it does. There’s a lot of hard work that’s gone into it. However, the end result is a statistical model based on past data. If you request specific information about a topic, the Generative AI tool will generate a statistically probable collection of text associated with that question.

The most straightforward impact of these tools are the loss in value of non-fiction pieces of work. Nonfiction in terms of reporting, novel research, and analysis must be consumed by the AI for it to be useful to an end user. When reading any of those primary sources it is important to read them critically. To understand the biases of the news source or the researcher.

AI strips all of that context. There’s no material difference between a piece of news from Fox News that is an opinion piece about a immigration which argues for the Great Replacement and a scholarly analysis of immigration which describes the overall economic benefits different countries reap from those immigrants. Without proper citation and collapsing of these articles into a single response, it’s impossible to analyze critically, because there is no context. The AI could decide that the great replacement is real and good because there is an economic benefit for the country to encourage immigration.

The Great Replacement isn’t real. So this is something the AI made up. However, the reader would have no idea which part of the statement is truth or fiction based on what’s presented.

This is dangerous. Writers and artists should be fighting against AI, because it strips their work of important context. It takes all the value for the AI company rather than sending the reader to the source. The AI Company does not compensate the original author. They don’t think they need to.

Artists are fighting back by using tools that hide watermarks in the artwork, which poison the dataset for the AI. These artists are being treated by tech bros, as Luddites. Which technically they are Luddites. But it’s a compliment not an insult.

These artists are continuing a long tradition of working class fighting against exploitation. We should celebrate these artists.

I am sure my writing has been stolen by AI. I’ve always used a Copy Left license for my work. However, I did not expect the work to be copied by a machine like AI. I only was willing for my work to be interpreted and modified by a thoughtful person.